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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Recap: "Graduation & A Surprise"

On tonight's
new episode of 19 Kids and Counting,
"Graduation & A Surprise"...

The Duggars are
preparing to celebrate Josiah's high school graduation...with 400 guests. "He
is such a people person," says Michelle, who admits she is not surprised
by the number of friends and family members who are coming to help celebrate.
Josiah sent out 300 invitations. According to Jim Bob, it will be the biggest
Duggar party ever.

At age 17,
Josiah is the 8th Duggar to graduate from high school.

What does
the rest of the Duggar clan have to say about Josiah? "He has a really giving spirit,"
says Jason.

"I like
Josiah because he gives me lots of candy," says James. Jessa agrees. And
if you have been a longtime viewer, you know that Josiah is a practical joker.

In
Washington D.C., Anna and the kids head to the grocery store to purchase
ingredients for a holiday meal for the entire Duggar family. She is able to
feed everyone for under $4 a person.

When Josh
gets home, Anna asks for his help preparing for the family's visit. She hopes
to have the basement bedroom cleared out and painted for Josh's parents. Then
Anna gets a call from Jim Bob, who says they drove through the night to avoid
bad weather and will be arriving in five hours, a day earlier than expected.

Josh and a
friend are hard at work fixing up the basement bedroom, while Anna is
scrambling to get the food ready on time. "I can rarely remember my family
being early to anything," says Josh, but he admits it usually involves
food.

As the
family rings the doorbell, smoke is pouring out of the oven, and the smoke
detector is screeching. Watch next week's episode to find out how it all turns
out!

29 comments:

What a fun episode,it was so nice to see Josh and Anna.The little ones are getting so big, I wish someone at the store would have told her about fresh turkey,it would have saved her thawing time, and it tastes better.It may cost a little more but its worth it to splurge every now and then.Can't wait until next week, I hope its a longer episode.

Congradulations Josiah! I know you will do great things for your fellow man as you already have.I remember when you were little and you said that you wanted to be a minister and do missionary work, how refreshing for a young man of this day and age to want to be such a servant to all those in need, that's what I call good parenting.Hope all your wishes come true, God bless you Siah. :)

Wow!! What a way to end the episode!! I was expecting TLC to show the next part but I guess I'll have to wait until next week!! :) I love Michelle's attitude when all of them are on a tight schedule (like arriving home to plan a graduation then traveling again to make it for a Holiday dinner after!!). She is such an encouragement! I love the whole family!!!!!

Another fun episode. :) Could have easily been formatted for an hour show. Very enjoyable. Josiah seems like a great kid. Hope he finds his path soon, he looks like someone with a lot of energy, a quick wit, and a high level of intelligence. Anna continues to impress me as a wife and mother. What a terrific team Josh and Anna are. I am not suggesting anyone walks through life perfectly, but it appears that there is a lot of love and some great things going on in these families. It is just really nice to see and maybe young families out there will be encouraged to speak to each other a little more gently, with patience and love.

Perhaps Anna is like the Marys of the Bible, humble women who found favor with God. Anna is welcoming, joyfully planning to graciously accommodate a rush of many hungry people into her home with their families loving hearts, arms and a table spread with a wholesome meal. WOW what a great example for me! Her goal is a good one. I just wonder if the film crew is going to order take out or do they brown bag it? (ha)

You can get a diploma when you homeschool. It is just a piece of paper. Colleges look at transcripts, another thing that a homeschool can do. The really important thing is the SAT or ACT. The grades on the transcript should reflect the scores on the big test.

Also, look at what accreditation actually means. Not very impressive. There are all kinds of public schools, look at MS, who are turning out poor students. They are accredited.

If I am correct they use SOS for high school. There are options with some large curriculum companies to have a "real" graduation and diploma. Remember, the school is accredited not the curriculum.

Most colleges welcome homeschoolers.

Research homeschooling before you criticize something that you really know nothing about. Just because it is different does not make it wrong.

Also, remember that public school are only a few hundred years old. For thousands of years people were educated at home. A parent is perfectly capable of teaching their own children.

Amen, I hate it when people assume that homeschooling parents are just keeping their kids home. They need to understand that most parents who homeschool do diligently research the best way to prepare their children for their future. Of course there are bad homeschooling parents. But I would bet there are more proactive homeschooling parents than parents who send their children to school. If you dump your children into a school and think that your job is done with your children's education then your failing your children.

I agree that the episode could have been an hour long. The friend at Josh and Anna's house was Skylar Weiss. There is several comments on the internet with people hoping Skylar and Jana court. I think he may be too young for Jana - perhaps Jinger. Love the show.

I doubt that Michelle or JimBob know anything about Algebra2 or chemistry, both which are 11th and 12th grade subjects. I understand they use a religious homeschool set of teachings which are substandard to other options for homeschool curriculum out there. I'd like to know how they are qualified to teach subjects that they haven't had themselves in high school It is apparent that neither of them took "college track' courses in high school, as Michelle had getting her MRS degree in mind when a junior and senior in HS, and JimBob clearly didn't believe in going to college for himself. I'd like to know just what these kids know academically as compared to college bound public/christing schooled peers. I would love to watch a 30 minute episode truly dedicated to revealing their childrens' curriculum and see just what it is that they learn, not on a field trip. Just curious, not criticizing.

re: jenn gutierrez comment; yes, I agree with you. Many parents do a poor job with their children's education whether in a school or homeschooling. Having said that, the Duggars choose to homeschool to keep their children isolated from their own peers. Certainly not all kids in a good Christian school will be bad influences. It tells you that they just want to control, isolate, and keep them censored. They don't watch TV, but for prepared DVDs, don't read any newspapers, magazines, etc., Not good.

I highly doubt that any of the Duggar children have entered a public school to take an exam or anything else, but for that "visit" which was televised and heavily monitored and chaperoned by Michelle. The sad part is that they have their very own curriculum, schedule, and testing standard, which IMO are quite low. I think the older kids should be quizzed some across the board on general public/Christian school subjects and see how what they know/ or don't know as the case may be. Don't ask them bible or religion questions, ask, geography, history, English, math, and especially science. I don't suggest this to embarrass them, or stress them, but for us to have a good comparison as to what it is that they are taught and retaining.

They repeatedly mention friends outside of the family. They do not seem to have any problem interacting with anyone that they meet. They are not shy. You first learn to get along with others by learning to get along with your family.

Ann...26You have no basis for your comment. They do not use their own curriculum. They use SOS. Check it out.I checked the Home School Legal Defense Association and Arkansas homeschoolers are required to take standardized tests.

If you want to wage war with homeschoolers you need to do your homework.

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Welcome! We are the premiere source for factual, encouraging information about Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their 19 kids, stars of TLC's 19 Kids and Counting (2008-2015); including news updates, photos, recipes, and episode recaps. This blog is not written by the Duggars, but we are personal friends of the family.